


Co-pilots Drabble

by silverflyingmachine



Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Beginnings, Crossover, Drabble, F/M, Gen, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-21 23:32:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/906249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverflyingmachine/pseuds/silverflyingmachine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Star Trek: AOS/Pacific Rim Crossover. Kirk and Spock are co-pilots and after a disastrous first attempt at drifting the two have a discussion on the viewing platform overlooking Gipsy Danger. Kirk has feelings, Spock has feelings, Gipsy Danger has feelings but for some reason only Scotty seems to be listening to them at the moment.  Disclaimer: I own none of these characters. I just like them and the universes that come with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Co-pilots Drabble

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thanks for taking the time to read this short drabble. It was inspired by the scene where Mako and Raleigh sit on a platform overlooking Gipsy Danger and discuss the events of Mako's ghost drifting. Since, this is the beginning of a relationship/friendship between Kirk and Spock there is no blatant evidence to indicate they are/would be together. The M/M tag is present because in my mind it would lead to an eventual relationship, and the story can be read as such. The same with Number One/Christopher Pike. 
> 
> On another note, this is my first piece of fanfiction I've ever written. Any concrit would be greatly appreciated. It was written over a series two very late nights and without a beta, so any advice is welcomed.

Spock and Kirk stand on the empty viewing platform overlooking the hangar bay where Gipsy Dangers looms over them. It’s been several hours since Kirk almost blew a hole through the Shatterdome with the jaeger’s plasmacaster, and Scotty’s engineering teams are busy running diagnostics and re-calibrating the weapons’ system. Kirk watches the teams of engineers shout directions and numbers as they move like ants across the mech’s frame. 

“How big is she? 60, 65 meters?” Kirk asks. Jim knows the answer, but he wants to hear Spock say it. He needs a distraction and a reminder of how powerful the jaeger is, and how close he came to experiencing that power.

“Approximately, 79 meters or 260 feet in US standard,” Spock answers. “The complete weight, with the head attached, is 1,980 tons.”

Kirk lets out a low whistle, and sits down swinging his legs over the platform’s edge. “Yeah, I see why everyone ran screaming.”

“I believe Mr. Scott did not leave this viewing platform if the stories are to be believed.”

For the first time since the accident Jim lets out an honest to god laugh because he can imagine Scotty, wide eyed, clutching the railing of the viewing platform and completely in love with Gipsy Danger, plasma cannon and all. “I think he happy to see his baby functioning optimally at such a close distance.”

“Fascinating,” Spock replies. 

A silence falls between them as the two men admire the machine before them. Jim’s eyes trace the energy core and he tries not to think about the people he almost killed, tries not to think about whatever doubts Spock had about him as co-pilot have only amplified, of the memory that caused it all, of being in the car during the first kaiju attack on San Francisco and falling. Falling into the ocean and the air being sucked out as water flooded in and the confusion of his parents yelling, his brother crying, and --

“Your mind,” Spock interrupts, “is not what I expected.” 

Jim jolts out of his memory for the second time today and looks up to find Spock watching him intently. “I’m going to hate whatever you say next, aren’t I?”

Spock raises an eyebrow and lowers himself to sit next to Jim. He is quiet for a moment and Jim almost believes he’s managed to dissuade Spock from continuing his line of thought when he starts speaking. “The way you move,” Spock begins, “is unpredictable. They are the actions of someone who is irresponsible and reckless.”

Jim shakes his head. “Here we go.”

Spock ignores him and pushes forward. “You react. Your movement and thoughts are all reactions.” Kirk raises his chin and hold Spock’s eye contact. Jim’s never been the guy to back down even if something is about to blow up in his face. “I assumed your mind would reflect your actions. I believed you would attempt to overpower me in the drift, that your emotions and memories would spill into mine. I assumed your mind would be as careless as your body.”

“I get it Spock,” Jim says waving his hand. “You don’--”

“I was wrong.” 

Jim closes his mouth and lets his arm drop, waiting for an explanation. “Your mind is not careless. You may react physically on instinct and intuition but they are controlled reactions. I found your mind to be quite ordered, in its own way. It was not the mind of someone who does not think situations through or the mind of someone who is not mindful of his actions. It is simply that you do so in your own way.” Spock pauses and lets the words hang between them, the silence makes Jim uncomfortable. “It is my fault you fell into your memory.”

Jim knits his eyebrows together. “How do you figure that Spock?”

Spock breaks eye contact with Kirk to look at Gipsy Danger. The engineers have moved down the mech and were slowly disappearing from their eyeline. Soon, it would only be Kirk, Spock and the jaeger. He lets Kirk’s question linger a moment longer before answering. “When we drifted, I fell into my memory of my co-pilot.” 

Jim nods. He knows this. He also knows it was, is deeply personal. He remembers the fragments of a foreign consciousness crashing into his mind, the gut wrenching pain attached to that memory, and the lingering numbness after it passed. They are images and impressions Jim isn’t sure he could forget soon. 

“As you are aware, you are his replacement.” Spock says replacement because he is not sure what word he should use or if there is a word that would be accurate enough to describe the space Kirk has filled.

Jim looks at his hands. “Your co-pilot, his name was Christopher Pike.” A name he only knows through Spock’s mind and a story his father once told him long ago. Spock nods, his eyes never leaving the right side of Gipsy Danger. 

“It was the memory of Pike’s death, that pulled us out of alignment. Had I been in better control of my emotions you would not have had to experience that moment.”

Immediately, Kirk feels the ghost of a memory that is not his. The pain and confusion that Pike felt as he was torn from his jaeger, and the grief and anger Spock felt when the neural link between the two of them was severed. The mental exhaustion and strain of piloting a jaeger solo for twenty-two minutes. 

“It has been several months and we are 5000 miles from Anchorage, but-” Spock swallows, “I am still emotionally compromised.” Spock’s dark eyes blink rapidly but don’t waver from the mech before him. “For that I am sorry, Kirk. It was my memory that you reacted to and my mistake that led to today’s incident.” 

Kirk leans back on his hands and pushes the memories that are not his aside. It was not his pain to embrace. It belonged to Pike, and Spock, and -- “Spock, in the memory. I saw Number One, er, the Marshall--”

“Yes. She was his co-pilot before me,” Spock answers. “She was grounded after sustaining her leg injury during a level 4 attack. It is how she became in charge of the Jaeger program.”

“She was at Anchorage.” 

“Yes.” Spock finally breaks eye contact with Gipsy Danger and looks across at the young man before him. “I believe we both felt him die that day.”

Kirk bites his lips and runs a hand through disheveled hair, “fucking kaiju.” He isn’t sure what else to say or what anyone can really say. There has been so much pain felt by so many people over the last twelve years, words don’t seem adequate. “Do you think she’ll ground us?”

“Number One?”

Kirk nods.

Spock stands up and adjusts his military blues. “No, I believe she will indicate her displeasure at almost having one of her teams blast a hole in her military compound, but no she will not ground us. Under different circumstances, perhaps, but she cannot afford to lose more co-pilots.”

“Well, at least Scotty got a show.”

“Indeed. Kirk--”

Jim sighs. “Spock, call me Jim. You’ve been inside my head. It’s alright to be on a first name basis.”

“Jim,” Spock corrects. “I am...I am glad you are my co-pilot.”

Jim grins. “Glad to be on board, Spock. Even, though you think I’m supremely unqualified and an unpredictable mess or some sort of super genius at compartmentalization. All I know is if you keep praising me I’m going to blush.” The corner of Spock’s mouth quirks upward as he turns to leave the viewing platform. When he reaches the door, he pauses, and turns his head to look back at Kirk. 

“Breakfast at 0800?” 

Jim sighs. “I’ll be the guy trying not to get beat up with a food tray.”

This time Spock does smile, even if it’s for the briefest of moments. “ I do not think you will be the only person at whom anger will be expressed" Spock points out. “But, perhaps, we will be able to face them together on full stomachs.” 

Jim returns the smile and watches Spock leave--his footsteps the only sound Jim can hear save the occasional shout from the ground crew below. Jim waits until he cannot hear Spock any longer before turning his attention to the mech behind him. Scotty’s engineers are long gone, and his eyes automatically lock onto the control room in the mech’s head. It’s the room where he and Spock will hook back into the Conn-Pod systems, and where they will drift and learn to move as one unit. It’s here Jim thinks maybe, just maybe he and Spock and Gipsy Danger could take on a lot more than a room full of angry military personnel.


End file.
